The Mage Replacement
by dakeyras
Summary: What if a permanent portal opened between the Pokemon world and Faerun? What if a Pokemon Trainer joined some adventurers and went dungeoncrawling? Read all about the epic adventures contained herein! There's some graphic violence, but not too much.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**: In this world, most people don't have Pokémon – it's a new phenomenon brought about due to a rift in reality that allows people to cross over from the Pokémon world to Faerun, and vice versa . This is using AD&D 2nd edition mechanics and classes, but I'm making the combat a little more unorthodox and dynamic. There aren't any wild Pokémon in Faerun, and the Pokéballs don't work on any local monsters.

The adventurers don't know everything, so when they say something that's not correct it's (probably) intentional by me.

Also, while I wish I was rich enough to own Pokémon and/or Dungeons and Dragons, I sadly don't (except for copies of some of the games).

-X-

Relim looked around the crowded inn for his companions. They'd arranged to have a corner table away from the bar for their recruitment. It was a shame, really; everyone got on really well with Moluth, right up until he left to go be a craftsman. But now, they needed a new source of arcane firepower. And that's why they were here.

Maranus, as the cleric, was the new face of the party – she was the most likable, after all, and being a representative of a God lent her opinions a certain weight. Of course, it'd be Artan who made the final choice – as Relim had joked many a time, he had all of the brains and none of the beauty. And he, the 'gentleman of other talents', was the third member of the group.

He sighed as he spotted his group. Instead of interviewing more wizards, the cleric was talking to one of the Planar tourists, who were all here via a strange permanent portal or gate. Apparently, there weren't any decent dungeons or lost treasures on the other side, or Relim would have been there in a flash.

They had some weird pets, though. Some were a little like animals, some were like objects, and some were simply indescribable. However, they had one thing in common – they were all capable of fighting, and fighting pretty hard at that. Well, at least their owners were protected. Relim thought very little of people who didn't do any work themselves, and lived off the backs of others, but these foreigners wouldn't survive five minutes without their precious Pokémon.

Snapping back to the present, he walked over to join his party, nodding greetings at some of the people drinking. This place was the social hub of the small farmer's town they were in. At least it wouldn't be much longer – once the team was full, they would all go clear more dungeons for money, fame, money, fun and money.

"So, Maranus, who's this?" he asked. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess he's not our new wizard, right?"

His companions were silent as he chuckled. "Well…" Artan began, "we're actually considering it. I mean, his Pokémon can do the important bits of what a wizard can, and a lot of stuff he can't."

The newcomer looked up from his drink. "My Pokémon can use fire, electric, water, and rock attacks. They're quite versatile. Besides, I don't want any of the treasure, except to cover my expenses. I'm only after any Pokémon that might be down there. Apparently, some of the local goblins raided across the portal and stole a load of Pokéballs, not that they can use them! Now they're being traded between all the local monsters. My name's Joey, by the way, and I'm the top percentage!"

Relim glanced at his group. "A word, please?"

The three adventurers moved away from the table.

"Are you two crazy?" the thief hissed. "We need some magic power, not just a few fancy tricks!"

Maranus and Artan calmed him down a little. "We're only going to be up against a few kobolds, and if anything goes wrong we can escape easily," the fighter pointed out.

Maranus chimed in, "we're going to see what he can do beforehand. If he's too weak, we'll just send him away. Besides, you'll get more loot than if we used a wizard. That's your key concern, usually."

"Fine. But if anything goes wrong, I'm blaming you guys." Relim accepted. "And I want to make sure he's at least as powerful as Moluth before I'm dungeoncrawling with him. Do you guys remember what happened to the Band of Five? Because they also decided to not bring a wizard along, and they never came back!"

-X-

It just wasn't fair, Relim decided. He still wasn't convinced that this 'Joey' was good enough with his creatures (one looked like a strange dog and the other appeared to be some kind of oversized snake) to replace a wizard, but the other two had overruled him. 'Joey' hadn't even shown them his third creature, claiming it was his _private ace!_ If they all survived, he might go and find a new group. After all, a man of his talents could find employment nearly anywhere there were people and valuables.

He looked around the narrow tunnels, slipping past a tripwire and examining where it reached the wall. Relim, satisfied that it wasn't part of some larger trap, carefully cut it. He moved a little further, scouting ahead of the main party, as always.

The sound of a kobold's voice drifted towards him from around the next bend – probably a guard. And he couldn't peer round to look without risking being seen himself. He sat back and waited for the rest of the party.

"How many foes do you think there are?" Artan asked, calm as always. "Can we take them all without risking too much?"

"I can't be certain, and I can't see safely right now," Relim replied. "I don't think we can advance without going past here, though."

"Remind me again why we're here?" the newcomer butted in. "We could always just leave."

Artan, who was starting to lose his patience after hearing this question half a dozen times already, cut him off with a look. "We need the money, and there's supposed to be some magic gear in here – especially a sword that I could use, and some scrolls for our magic friend here," he gestured at Maranus, "not to mention that there might be some Pokémon. You can't get anything in a dungeon without risk."

"Well, in that case…" Joey pulled out a red-and-white orb and gestured with it. He then ran around the corner before anyone could stop him, and there was a flash of white light.

"After him!" Artan shouted, and the other three party members followed their new companion round the corner. There, they skidded to a halt as a flash of red returned whatever creature Joey had used to its small home. There had been three kobold guards around a campfire, within easy reach of a large gong that presumably activated the alarm.

None of the guards had reached it. They were stretched out in a pool of blood. One had a hole through his chest, another appeared to have had every bone in his body broken. The third was barely recognisable as a kobold any more.

"Well," Joey said, surveying the carnage, "that was easy! What do we do now?"

-X-

"He's a demon!" Maranus whispered.

"Nonsense! At most he has a demon in his orb," Relim countered, "and I doubt he's strong enough to control one."

"Let's just be careful around him until we know the extent of his powers. If we stay calm and sensible, we should be fine." As always, Artan was the voice of reason. "We have nothing to worry about right now – only an idiot would pick a fight with his companions in a hostile dungeon."

"Couldn't we take him out, then?" Maranus asked again.

Artan was annoyed again, Relim could hear it clearly. "Let me repeat my last sentence: 'Only an idiot would pick a fight with his companions in a hostile dungeon.' That includes us." Louder, he added "Ok, Relim, scout ahead again. We don't want to get lost in this labyrinth."

-X-

Soon, Relim found the main Kobold treasure chamber. Along with all the Kobold guards. And, it appeared, their chief too.

Cursing their luck, he slipped back to warn the others. "We've got most of the Kobold clan ahead. If we take them out, we can get all their treasure. But, and I can't stress this enough, if we lose we will all die. What do you guys think?"

Maranus was the first to talk. "We've gone this far, let's just get it over with. Besides, I've heard all sorts of things about how rich this clan is. I say we do it, in the name of my God!"

Arlan was quick to respond. "The reason they're so rich is because they're strong, and even if they weren't powerful when they got their treasure, they'd have to be strong by now or they'd have lost it again. I'm against it."

"I've made a point of not getting involved in our little disagreements," Relim stated. "I'm not too fussed either way. Looks like it's up to Joey here to decide."

"In that case, let's do it!" the young trainer said. He called two of his creatures out (the snake and the dog again) and got ready to attack. Relim slipped ahead so he could despatch the chief from behind once the battle started. Maranus stood next to Artan, ready to heal him if he got hurt, while he readied himself to charge.

The moment Artan sprang forward, Joey and his pets moved as well. Relim was careful to stay out of sight as he watched the battle. Artan looked calm as always, swinging and killing with precision and grace. Maranus was busy piling onto a larger Kobold, taking him down after a few heavy blows. And Joey was in the thick of it, with a beast either side. His snake, which he called 'Ekans', had wrapped two of the guards and bitten a third, who was off in a corner clutching at his stomach and spitting blood. His dog, which he called Growlithe, had set one Kobold on fire and ripped another's throat out, while its roar had made another two back away and hide.

Relim saw his chance. He darted in and rammed both his daggers into the Chieftain's back, then jumped away. He waited for his target to get distracted again, a job that Maranus fulfilled to perfection by chanting a loud, violent and graphic prayer to her god. As the Chieftain was distracted (it appeared he understood what she was saying) Relim moved in from his other side and cut his throat.

After seeing their leader die, most of the remaining Kobolds were rather demoralised. They were easily forced into a corner, which Joey took advantage of by immolating half of them with his hound. Maranus and Artan finished the rest off, with Relim throwing his daggers in to add to the confusion and drop a Kobold or two extra.

The party cleaned their weapons, and Joey returned his Pokémon. All four of them looked pretty exhilarated – after all, they'd just taken on a Kobold clan on their home ground and won. The next step was sharing the treasure, and they were all dreaming of what they might find.

"So, do you want to look at the treasure now?" Artan asked. "It's in the locked room there." He gestured towards the chamber the Kobolds had been guarding.

Relim stepped forward to pick the lock. After a few pokes and a little muttering, the door finally swung open. Inside, nestled amongst the sacks of coins and to the right of the weapons rack was a single, grimy, yet undamaged Pokéball. Joey stepped forward and took a hold of it. With trembling fingers he pressed the button in its centre. A white light spilled out as a Pokémon materialised…

-X-

**A/N**: I hope you enjoyed this. I'm not sure whether to make it a short 3-5 chapter story arc or whether to continue it to a longer campaign – please leave your opinion in a review. If no-one appears interested, I'll probably stop rather quickly. Also, if you have a good idea for what's in the Pokéball please leave a review too. I already have some ideas, but more are always welcome.

Also, the main reason I wrote this was because I couldn't find any stories like it (cross-over of D&D and Pokémon). If anyone knows of any, please tell me!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: I still don't own Pokémon or Dungeons and Dragons, and won't in the foreseeable future.

-X-

Relim gasped. A green, insectile beast, with swords for arms, stood in front of him. It looked around curiously, and then turned into a flash of red and returned to its ball. Joey looked pleased with his share of the treasure, and walked back out of the room. "The rest's all yours," he threw back over his shoulder.

The three party members who _didn't _summon weird monsters inspected their treasure. Artan grabbed a magic halberd, Maranus found a _ring of fire resistance_, and Relim helped himself to a suit of enchanted leather armour.

The sacks of coins were split evenly, and then the room was empty again. A large part of being an adventurer was knowing when to take all the treasure and then leave quickly before more things turned up and tried to kill you. Relim planned to be over halfway back to town before any other monsters realised what had happened to the Kobolds and their treasure.

By the time that everyone had left the Kobolds' treasury, though, they had already encountered difficulties – as they rounded the corner, they walked right into six orcs! Without hesitation, Relim rolled forwards and stabbed the first two with his daggers, then spun on one heel and slashed a throat. Artan had also exploded into action and had cut two orcs down with a single mighty swing. Maranus had chanted something, then grabbed the last orc's face. Cuts erupted all over his body and he fell to the ground, dead. Joey stood there gaping at everyone else's reactions. "How did you get to be so _fast_?" he asked.

"Well," Relim explained, "when you see a few slower people get gutted before they know what his them, it makes you a little more nervous and quicker on your feet. I hope you get to learn a different way, though."

Artan cut him off with a glance. "This isn't just a group of orcs. They're scouts for a larger force, and it looks like they're coming from the exit! With this large a scouting party, there must be over 50 orcs on their way here."

"So, what do we do?" Maranus asked. "Try to cut through, go round, or find another exit?"

"We should try to go around using the tunnels down here", Relim said. "They can't block all the passages with a large enough force to stop us at once, and it's unlikely they'll try since they shouldn't know we're here."

"Whatever we do, we need to hurry," Artan added. It was decided. Relim led his companions off down a side tunnel that went around the main part of the dungeon, then doubled back towards the entrance.

-X-

It was _impossible_, Relim decided. There was_ no way _in the Nine Hells that orcs could be smart enough to trap an adventuring party. There must be another force at work here. He looked back to Maranus and gave an almost imperceptible nod. Then, he guided the group back to the last intersection. The map he had showed that all routes that led out were blocked. There was nowhere to go but further down.

Maranus closed her eyes and carefully used her natural, carefully-hidden powers to reach out and around with her mind, looking for intruders. It only took her seconds to spot a huge presence that glowed purple. It noticed her and suddenly disappeared. She opened her eyes and prepared to announce to the group that they were definitely being remotely tracked, and this intelligence was probably linked to the orcs, when she felt a powerful wave of energy blast her.

-X-

When Maranus came to, she was being carried by Artan. She looked up and saw that they were in a different part of the dungeon. "What… what happened?" she asked.

Joey looked at her. "You had a weird trance, and when it was over, you screamed and collapsed."

Relim nodded, adding "You've been unconscious for about an hour. We've been forced deeper into the dungeon, although I don't understand how or why."

"I saw something," Maranus explained. "A psychic presence, really powerful, which took me by surprise. I think it's controlling the orcs. They're arranged so that we can't get through without a fight, and each group is big enough to cause serious problems."

Artan looked thoughtful. "The best way out is to find a weaker point in their lines, and hit them there on a battleground of our choice. Or we could go deeper and deeper into the dungeon."

After a quick discussion, it was decided. A weak point would be found and exploited, and the group would make a break for the surface. However, none of them knew where a good point to attack would be.

Artan, as always, was the clever one. "So you say this presence felt very intelligent, correct?" Maranus nodded. "Ergo, he will have a troop distribution that is optimal against us. We need to defeat his orcs on our terms, which means breaking his expectations. And the one wild card we have is Joey."

Joey was very surprised, it appeared. "What can I do?" he asked.

"It's simple," Relim said. He was proud of the way he'd been able to follow and use Artan's reasoning – sometimes the ugly fighter had 'mad old wizard' levels of genius. "We use a battleground that your secret monster can make good use of, and then use it to swing the battle our way. What kind of terrain do you need?"

-X-

The leader of this orc group looked confident. Life had been good lately. He had been given an even larger group to control, he was going to receive a lot of treasure, and he was working for a very cunning and powerful chief. As always, he couldn't remember the new chief exactly, not that he cared much. Life was good.

The dozen or so orcs behind him thought the same, although to a lesser extent. They had some loot, some food and beer, and an enemy. As the group marched down the long, winding corridor, they were in fairly high spirits. Up ahead was a cave where they could have a rest and relax in the water pool.

As the group entered the cavern, an ear-splitting screech echoed around the room. The whole group huddled together, some dropping weapons and shields to clap their arms over their ears. A handful of arrows and slingstones shot out at the orcs, coming from behind some of the large stalagmites that adorned the room. The leader, sensing his moment for glory, charged, and most of his followers came after him. All that stopped, though, when some of the boulders on the floor turned into a huge monster that drove its horn through the first orc's chest, and then flailed its tail – which had somehow turned to metal – through the charging ranks, dropping many.

The ambushers had used surprise effectively so far, and now they moved in to finish off the rest on foot. A shadow darted out from behind a pillar, slitting a throat before disappearing again. Another foe simply used a huge polearm to deal out death from behind the monster, while a third was using a glowing mace that flung orcs against the cavern walls. But the scariest of all was the youngling who simply_ rode _the boulder-wyrm that was causing so much havoc.

From a hidden passage on the other side of the cavern, over 30 human bandit reinforcements poured in and massed in front of the battle, awaiting the command to join the combat. At a barked order they moved forward to attack. Too late, the brigands saw the trap. The rock beast reared up and slammed its entire length into a stalactite patch, sending the whole lot down onto the new arrivals! Their officer could glimpse, through the dust, the orcs getting slaughtered by the trio of adventurers, before he fainted from the blood loss of both legs being crushed.

Only four of the reinforcements reached the fight, and they were barely in time to watch the last orc fall. The darting shadow took one bandit down, a second fell to a well-placed blow by the big burly fighter, and a heavy mace ended the third one's life. "All yours!" the fighter shouted to the wyrm-rider. A flash of red, and the monster disappeared. Another flash, this one white, and a huge purple snake was in its place. A single darting motion, and there were no more orcs in the cavern.

"Well, that was a lot easier than expected!" Relim said. He held his arm over to Maranus, so she could inspect and heal the long gash from an orc's dagger.

Maranus looked up from Artan's leg, which had a spear-tip embedded in it. "We should be all healed and able to move in 5 minutes. I was surprised at the number of people in the second wave. How did you guess there would be reinforcements, anyway, Artan?"

"We were being herded around by a force that was stronger than us, but split up into several weaker groups. It made sense that we could fight our way through, and if I can figure it out, so can the mysterious yet very clever enemy leader. To stop us, he'd have to know where we were going to attack and send more troops there. Since he's aware of this, and he's managed to mobilise a large number of orcs – probably the hardest race to take control of for creatures that are clever rather than strong – it seemed likely for him to have some other troops too, who would be shadowing the orc forces."

Relim nodded. He'd figured it out himself, after some hints from Artan. He turned to loot the bodies and make sure they were all dead.

"Knowing this, I planned our battle to defeat two separate waves of foes – the first in open combat to lure out the reinforcements, the second (more numerous) wave with a trap. If we'd trapped the first group, then the second group would be more prepared. Also, it's likely that the second wave would be stronger than the first as they were the force that was meant to defeat us."

Artan looked at Maranus. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" At her puzzled look, he sighed. "Never mind. By the way, Joey, what was that creature's name that you used?"

"It's an Onix!" Joey said. "It's immune to lightning and strong against physical attacks and fire, but it's weak against water and plant attacks. It's also, as you may have noticed, rather big and strong."

"It definitely came in handy," Relim admitted, back from his grisly business. "I think without it, we'd have been in serious danger."

"All healed!" Maranus said. "Let's get out of here before more enemies turn up."

The four adventurers turned and left the cave, empty except for the bodies of the fallen.

-X-

**A/N**: Please review this if you enjoyed it. If I don't have any reviews by the end of Chapter 3, I'll probably make Chapter 4 the last one. Also, I'm thinking about having one of the three 'normal' adventurers get a starter Pokémon – not necessarily one of the starters from the games – and first person to request one of the characters to start their Pokémon adventure gets their wish granted.


End file.
